Officials with Access Health CT say a call center representative has come forward after leaving a backpack Friday containing handwritten notes that included customers’ names and Social Security numbers on Trumbull Street in Hartford.
The four notepads in the backpack listed the names and birthdates of about 400 individuals. However, upon closer examination by Access Health CT officials, they said fewer than 200 of the individual entries in the handwritten notes included Social Security numbers.
Jason Madrak, chief marketing officer for Access Health CT, said the individual who works for their call center vendor, Maximus Health Services, turned himself in after hearing about the backpack on local television news Friday. Madrak did not identify the individual.
“As the investigation continues, this individual has been placed on administrative leave and has had all system access privileges revoked,” Madrak said in a statement. “While we are still working to understand exactly why this person took the information out of the building, based on what we have learned so far it does not appear there was malfeasance on the part of this person.”
Madrak said it’s not unusual for call center representatives to jot down notes while talking to customers in order to better serve them.
“However, it is expressly prohibited for this information to leave the call center office in any way, shape, or form,” Madrak said.
The backpack was found on Trumbull Street. Access Health CT has a call center on Trumbull Street near the corner of Church Street.
Access Health CT senior management will meet with senior Maximus representatives Monday to continue the investigation and determine whether any action is necessary to prevent another potential data breach.
In the meantime, Access Health CT is currently calling individuals whose names were handwritten on the paper note pads to inform them of the potential breach. Consumers will be offered credit monitoring, fraud resolution, identity theft insurance, and security freezes of credit reports.
Maximus Health Services was hired to manage the call center for Access Health CT. It’s unclear exactly how much the company is being paid for its services by the quasi-public exchange, because most of the pertinent information in the contract has been redacted.
Jeffrey Cohen of WNPR did a report in September detailing the extent of the redaction.
“Any language that has anything to do with how much Maximus is paid — both in the original contract as well as in its amendment — was blacked out,” Cohen reported.
Access Health CT CEO Kevin Counihan told WNPR that the redactions were based on privacy and competitive issues.
Maximus, which won the contract in what Counihan described as a competitive bidding process, said in a press release last February that it would receive $15 million over three years from March 1, 2013, through August 31, 2016.